Church and fellowship

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The Church and Church Fellowship report is a joint document on the foundations of the understanding of the church by the Roman Catholic and Old Catholic churches . On behalf of the International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Union of Old Catholic Churches in Utrecht and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity , it was drafted by theologians of both churches in the International Roman Catholic Old Catholic Dialogue Commission (IRAD), which met from 2004 to 2009 . The report shows a bilateral aspect of the modern ecumenical movement . It was published among other things in the ecumenical publication series Documents of Growing Agreement .

background

prehistory

The actual dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Old Catholic Church began at the time of Vatican II , to which the International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference had also sent a delegation of observers. Among the observers was the director of the Old Catholic Seminary at the University of Bonn, Werner Küppers . In the 1960s and 1970s following the Council, bilateral discussion commissions worked on ecumenical documents and agreements at the national and international level . The aim of the talks at that time was to extend the regulations of the Eastern Church decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum , especially Nos. 27 and 28, to Old Catholics as well. This was the intention of the Zurich Nota passed in 1968 by an international commission . Nota on the relationship between the Old Catholic Churches and the Roman Catholic Church . The Zurich Nota, however, was not ratified in this form by the Roman authorities, but was returned to the national commissions for the preparation of further implementing provisions.

In Germany, in September 1973, the German Bishops' Conference meeting in Fulda with regard to the Old Catholic Church in Germany resolved the agreement on a conditional and limited community service between the Catholic and the Old Catholic Church . This agreement comprised several points, one of which was the authorization of the faithful of the Roman Catholic Church and the Old Catholic Church to mutually solicit the sacraments of the Eucharist , penance and anointing of the sick from a clergyman of the other church. The Swiss Bishops 'Conference and the Dutch Bishops' Conference adopted similar agreements on the communion of the Eucharist between Catholics and Old Catholics.

In the following years the agreements were published again after the Congregation had incorporated additional requests, but were not promulgated by the Pope . With the beginning of the pontificate of John Paul II , the international dialogue on this matter practically came to a standstill.

International Roman Catholic Old Catholic Dialogue Commission (IRAD)

On the occasion of an ecumenical ceremony in 2000, an international and bilateral commission was discussed for the first time since the 1970s between the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht Antonius Jan Glazemaker and Edward Cardinal Cassidy, and in 2003 a preparatory group met in Stuttgart. The actual International Roman Catholic Old Catholic Dialogue Commission (IRAD) began its work in 2004.

The International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference under Archbishop Joris Vercammen appointed the Bishop of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland Fritz-René Müller (Co-President), Jan Visser, Angela Berlis , Günter Esser, Maja Weyermann, Peter-Ben Smit, Harald Münch and Martin Eisenbraun as members . Walter Cardinal Kasper as President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity delegated the Bishop Emeritus of Würzburg Paul-Werner Scheele (Co-President), Auxiliary Bishop Johannes van Burgsteden, Capitular Hubert Bour, Heinrich JF Reinhardt , Hans Jörg Urban and Matthias Türk ( Vatican City). The eleven sessions took place between May 2004 and June 2009 alternately at Old Catholic and Roman Catholic conference locations, for example in the Johannesschlössl of the Pallottines in Salzburg and in the parish hall of Bern opposite the Old Catholic St. Peter and Paul Church . At the end of the first term of office, the commission presented its report under the title Church and Church Fellowship. The international commission met again from 2012 to 2016 in its second mandate period (IRAD II) on the issues that had not yet been clarified in this report. The report of the 2nd commission was published in 2017 as Church and Church Fellowship (Second Report) .

Structure and content

The report of the Dialogue Commission was presented in 2009 and made available to the public in the series of Documents of Growing Consistency and in an 85-page separate print. The document consists of six chapters and several sub-chapters. The paragraphs are numbered from 1 to 89 across all chapters.

The report deliberately cites not only documents from previous conversations between the Roman Catholic and Old Catholic Churches, but also uses passages from other ecumenical conversations, provided that they are compatible with the respective chapter, for example from the Old Catholic-Orthodox dialogue , the Anglican-Roman-Catholic dialogue and the Evangelical-Lutheran-Roman-Catholic dialogue .

preamble

The first lines of the report say that the alienation between the Roman Catholic Church and the Old Catholic Church is an “intra-Catholic problem”. On the basis of the hermeneutics of trust, the present document attempts to outline a possible path to church fellowship between Catholics and Old Catholics. However, since no ecumenical return is implied, the report is breaking new ground.

The Church and Communion document begins with the words:

“(1) The dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches, like any other interchurch dialogue, is subject to the promise and claim of Jesus Christ, who prayed for his people that“ all be one: like you father , are in me and I am in you, they too should be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me "(Jn 17:21)"

The seven sacraments

Chapter 2 The Church - Trinitarian-Soteriological Foundation deals with the Church as communion through, with and in Christ. It is the community of believers brought into being by God and is essentially a mystery. Both churches testify to the seven number of the sacraments , which include baptism , confirmation , the Eucharist , penance , anointing of the sick , consecration and marriage .

  • Through baptism man is incorporated into the Church. Both churches practice infant baptism. Ordinary donors are bishops, priests and deacons, and lay people in emergencies.
  • Confirmation bestows the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The donor is the bishop or an authorized priest.
  • In the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the Catholic and Old Catholic Churches jointly and expressly confess the real presence in the consecrated gifts. Only the bishop and the priest preside over the Eucharist. The commission compared the statements of the Council of Trent and the Utrecht Declaration No. 6 on the character of the victim. After a thorough and careful examination, the essential correspondence in teaching and liturgy could be determined.
  • In the sacrament of penance, sins are forgiven; the bishop and priests are donors. Both churches know penitential devotions, but this has more weight in the Old Catholic Church, whereas the practice of the Roman Catholic Church is clearly dominated by individual confession. In Old Catholicism, both deprecative and indicative absolute formulas are used.
  • In the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, believers are anointed with oil with prayer. In both churches the ordinary donor is the bishop and the priest.
  • The sacrament of ordination has its origin in the mission of the apostles. The Catholic and Old Catholic Churches have a tripartite office: bishop, priest and deacon. Both churches state that the valid dispensation of consecration is carried out by bishops who are in apostolic succession and that baptism, confirmation and consecration cannot be repeated.
  • The Roman Catholic Church and the Old Catholic Church jointly profess the sacramentality and indissolubility of monogamy. Similar to the Orthodox Church, in the Old Catholic Church, from a pastoral point of view, divorced persons are (re) married and admitted to the sacraments.

The church

Chapter 3 Local, Regional and Universal Dimension of the Church shows a multitude of offices and ministries in the Church, with the office of the bishop playing an indispensable role for unity. The Commission notes that each local Church is a representation of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church as attested in the Nicene-Constantinople Creed . The local churches are jointly responsible for the supra-local and universal communion.

In the 4th chapter Personal, collegial and communal responsibility for the unity of the Church and its abiding by the truth , the commission states that in the local Church the bishop is the bearer of the personal episcopes. His leadership ministry is in connection with the rest of the participants in the apostolic ministry and also with the testimony of all baptized people. Primacy and synodality, i.e. leadership and shared responsibility, are equally necessary. Holy Scripture, tradition, the believers' sense of faith and the Church's magisterium are witnesses to the truth, all of which are assigned to the Holy Scriptures. The passing on of the apostolic ministry through prayer and the laying on of hands is an essential aspect of apostolic succession.

Although the Eucharistic fellowship between Catholics and Old Catholics resolved by the German Bishops' Conference in the 1970s was not implemented, the Dialogue Commission deliberately uses passages from this Agreement on Pastoral Aid (VPH) for its report and cites that both churches “in gratitude for their extensive To recognize communion in the confession and in the understanding of the traditional Catholic faith "and that the Catholic and Old Catholic Churches" recognize their agreement with regard to divine revelation and its transmission, through the testimony of Holy Scripture and the Church, the seven sacraments and the ecclesiastical office, which in apostolic succession is exercised ”, rejoice together.

In chapter 5 The Pope's service to the unity of the Church and her abiding by the truth , the Old Catholic note that all previous official utterances and declarations on the primacy of the Bishop of Rome have always recognized a primacy, reminding the tradition of the old Church corresponds. On the other hand, the universal primacy and infallibility, according to the definitions of Vatican I, are rejected .

On the way to full church fellowship

The 6th chapter on the way to full church fellowship is divided into several sub-chapters. The title 6.1. The method of the differentiated consensus introduces the working methods of the commission, in point 6.2. Basic matches , some topics are mentioned again in which matches could be found. With regard to the teaching of Vatican I on the papal primacy, the document states that this dogma no longer necessarily has the weight of a church-dividing difference “as it used to”. The dialogue borrows from the “communio structure” of the church.

In subsection 6.3. Open questions are mentioned:

  • Open questions about ecclesiology (especially about the jurisdiction and teaching primacy of the Pope)
  • Open questions on the Marian dogmas of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 and the Assumption of the Virgin in 1950 . However, it is expressly pointed out that in the Old Catholic liturgy the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, has a firm place as the first of the saints. Whether the Old Catholic side can be induced to rethink their rejection on the basis of the elaborated interpretation of the two Marian dogmas has to be shown first by an in-depth discussion.
  • The question of the ordination of women to priestly service. The extent to which, in the centuries of non-ordination of women, there is an authentic tradition in the sense of an authority to testify to faith or “only” a historical and social fact - albeit of a long duration - is a matter of dispute in ecumenism. The extent to which church fellowship between Catholics and Old Catholics is permitted or impossible due to the different practices must be left to a further discussion process. It is pointed out that this topic of ordination or non-ordination is handled differently within the Union of Utrecht and that communio in sacris is still possible. The Polish National Catholic Church of America (PNCC) left the Union of Utrecht in 2003 because of the negative attitude towards women's ordination and terminated the Old Catholic Church Fellowship.
  • With regard to celibacy , the commission states that married Old Catholic priests do not stand in the way of a church fellowship; the dialogue commission refers to the practice of the Eastern Catholic churches united with Rome . The validity of the episcopal ordination of a married priest - as practiced in Old Catholicism - is fundamentally not in doubt. The commission points out, however, that in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Orthodox Churches, the consecrators to the episcopate must be unmarried and that this practice is already documented in the documents of the early councils.

Effects of the Codex Iuris Canonici on dialogue

In the further course of the chapter on the outstanding questions, the Roman Catholic side also refers to another canon law problem that forms a certain hurdle in the dialogue between the two churches: the large number of former Roman Catholic priests who are now Old Catholic pastors are subject to according to the Codex Iuris Canonici (CIC) of 1983, despite her transfer to the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church. The same applies to Roman Catholic lay people converting to Old Catholicism. In the event of a possible church fellowship, the commission outlines the possibility that the Pope can grant a (one-off) dispensation from can. 11 CIC / 83 , and thereby enables the release from the Roman jurisdiction and the exemption from excommunication on account of heresy and schism ( can. 1364 CIC / 83 ) and suspension (in the case of marriage according to can. 1394 CIC / 83 ). The above applies only to priests and believers who have left the Roman Catholic Church. Those who were accepted into the Old Catholic Church with their baptism are not affected by this legal situation - since the change from the CIC 1917 to the CIC 1983.

The differences regarding can. 1024 CIC / 83 , which provides for consecration only for a baptized man, are still among the open questions in the report. Nevertheless, the commission writes in its report: Should there be an agreement on the communio in sacris between Catholics and Old Catholics, the donation of the sacraments to Roman Catholic believers by priestesses should be excluded, whose donation according to the Roman Catholic view of the ordained Man is reserved. This topic has been discussed further since 2012 in the Dialogue Commission's second term of office.

Catholics and Old Catholics on the way to reconciliation and healing

In the penultimate section under title 6.4. Old Catholic ideas about the shape of a possible church fellowship recorded some considerations about a possible church fellowship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Union of Utrecht. Communion with the Apostolic See would include naming the Pope in the Old Catholic Eucharistic celebrations, announcing the election of Old Catholic Bishops and transmitting the statements of the International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference. With regard to the canonical assessment, however, the report states that, from the Old Catholic perspective, no subordination of the Union of Utrecht under the CIC 1983 or the CCEO 1990 is envisaged for a possible community. The concrete procedure would first have to be worked out with the help of canons.

In the last section of the Church and Church Fellowship report, 6.5. On the path of reconciliation and healing , the International Roman Catholic Old Catholic Dialogue Commission explains that the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Old Catholic Church shows features of a "family quarrel" and that there is only a way to a common future if the alienations and injuries of the past would be dealt with. The international commission suggests that more bilateral commissions should work again at the national level in order to work with openness and sensitivity on the common future.

The report, written jointly by Roman Catholic and Old Catholic theologians, ends with the words:

"The degree of agreement between our two churches shown in this text fills us with the hope that they will find the way to visible unity under God's guidance."

reception

post processing

After the German-language report was published in 2009, translations were made into Dutch, Polish, Czech, English and French. To a certain extent, the Commission's report is also understood as a response to the encyclical Ut unum sint John Paul II. The 41st International Old Catholic Theological Conference stated in its statement of August 2009 that it shared the assessment of the international Roman Catholic Old Catholic Dialogue Commission that the degree of agreement shown made the possibility of church fellowship appear conceivable. In the member churches of the Union of Utrecht, the respective pastoral conferences took note of the report of the commission. The extent to which the still open questions are either adiaphora or continue to divide the church will also be related to how the texts of the commission can be integrated into the hierarchy of truths. With regard to the in-depth discussion of Mariology, the Anglican-Roman Catholic document Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ from 2004 could offer further inspiration.

A lecture examined the report from an orthodox point of view. In order to agree between the Roman Catholic Church and the Old Catholic Church with regard to baptism, it was established that in the Orthodox Church the deacon is not an ordinary donor of baptism and that other Orthodox circles have problems with infusion baptism. In Orthodoxy, confirmation is given with baptism. In Orthodoxy, too, there are reserves against the doctrine of transubstantiation, but this does not mean a rejection of the doctrine of faith. There is consensus on Chapter 4 (About the Church) on the Orthodox side, there is agreement with the document of the Catholic-Orthodox Commission of Ravenna (October 2009). The rejection of the ordination of women is widespread in the Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic justification mentioned in the report on Church and Church Fellowship on the basis of a sponsorship metaphor is not proven in the Orthodox literature.

After a detailed study of the text Church and Church Fellowship, the International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity have decided to continue the dialogue. An international Roman Catholic Old Catholic Dialogue Commission (IRAD II) therefore met regularly from 2012 to 2016 on the outstanding issues.

Pope Francis

The role of the International Roman Catholic Old Catholic Dialogue Commission was also recognized by Pope Francis in October 2014 . On the occasion of the Vatican City conducted private audience for the Old Catholic Bishops of the Holy Father spoke of it was made possible by the work of the Commission, to build bridges of deeper mutual understanding and practical cooperation and to define new convergences. Thanks to the joint commission, differences could have been better identified and possible solutions could have been put in a new context.

In his speech to the Old Catholic Episcopate, the Pope also pointed out that, despite the existing agreement, he had recognized new differences that had emerged between the Catholic and Old Catholic Church over the years. Pope Francis was particularly “saddened” by a growing distance on the subject of ministry and ethical judgment.

In his address, the Holy Father nevertheless endorsed the progress of the bilateral talks by stating:

"The challenge for Catholics and Old Catholics is to persevere in a substantial theological dialogue and to continue walking the path together, praying and working together in a deeper spirit of conversion to all that Christ wants for his Church."

The chairman of the Old Catholic delegation, Archbishop of Utrecht Joris Vercammen, quoted from the report of the Dialogue Commission during the private audience and described the theological differences between Rome and Utrecht as an “intra-Catholic problem” in his speech to Francis. The Archbishop also noted that the Old Catholics recognize the unique position of the Pope in the whole Church, but that the Bishop of Rome could gain even more moral authority if his Petrine service were embedded in the synodality of the bishops.

expenditure

  • Church and fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 .
  • Johannes Oeldemann, Friederike Nüssel, Uwe Swarat, Athanasios Vletsis (eds.): Documents of growing agreement. All reports and consensus texts of interdenominational discussions at world level. Volume 4 . Bonifatius, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Paderborn, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-89710-492-1 .
  • Church and fellowship. First and Second Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission 2009 and 2016 . Bonifatius, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-89710-746-5 . (Anthology with the reports 2009 and 2016)

literature

  • Victor Conzemius: Catholicism without Rome. The Old Catholic Church Fellowship . 1st edition. Benziger, Zurich, Einsiedeln, Cologne 1969. ( Imprimatur : Book number 222 24019)
  • Wolfgang Krahl: Ecumenical Catholicism. Old Catholic landmarks and texts from two millennia . 1st edition. St. Cyprian, Bonn 1970.
  • Seckler, Pesch, Brosseder, Pannenberg (eds.): Encounter. Contributions to a hermeneutics of theological conversation. Festschrift for Heinrich Fries . Styria, Graz, Vienna, Cologne 1972, ISBN 3-222-10701-7 .
  • Urs Küry: The Old Catholic Church. Their history, their teaching, their concerns . 3. Edition. Evangelisches Verlagswerk, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-7715-0190-3 .
  • Wolfgang Thönissen (Hrsg.): Lexicon of ecumenism and denominational studies. On behalf of the Johann Adam Möhler Institute . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2007, ISBN 978-3-451-29500-3 .
  • Volker Resing (Ed.): Herder correspondence. Monthly issues for society and politics (issue 11/2010) . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2010.
  • Apostolic See (ed.): L`Osservatore Romano. The Vatikanzeitung in German (edition 4/2012) . Schwabenverlag, Ostfildern 2012.
  • Wolfgang H. Müller (Ed.): Church and Church Fellowship. The catholicity of the Old Catholics (Christ Catholics). Studies Ecumenical Institute Lucerne 10 . Theological Publishing House Zurich, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-290-20089-3 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Church and Church Fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius , Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 7-12 .
  2. ↑ International Roman-Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue. Vatican Radio , May 13, 2006, archived from the original on February 2, 2015 ; accessed on March 9, 2015 .
  3. ^ Peter Neuner : Old Catholic Church . In: Wolfgang Thönissen (Hrsg.): Lexicon of ecumenism and denominational studies . On behalf of the Johann Adam Möhler Institute for Ecumenism. Herder publishing house . Freiburg in Breisgau. 2007. ISBN 978-3-451-29500-3 . Pp. 31-34.
  4. ^ Werner Küppers: Between Rome and Utrecht. On the recent development of the relationship between the Old Catholic and Roman Catholic Church . In: Seckler / Pesch / Brosseder / Pannenberg (eds.): Encounter. Contributions to a hermeneutics of theological conversation. Festschrift for Heinrich Fries . Styria. Graz / Vienna / Cologne. 1972. ISBN 3-222-10701-7 . P. 507.
  5. ^ Resolutions of the Würzburg Synod, 5.4.1. Eastern and Old Catholic Churches, page 214. German Bishops' Conference, August 20, 1976, accessed on March 9, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b c Urs Küry : The Old Catholic Church. Their history, their teaching, their concerns . 3. Edition. Evangelisches Verlagswerk, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-7715-0190-3 , p. 420-421 .
  7. ↑ Peter Neuner: New Aspects of the Communion in Communion. The theological significance of the limited fellowship with the Old Catholics . In: Wolfgang Seibel , SJ (Hrsg.): Voices of the time . 192. Vol. 99. Vol. 3, March 1974 . Herder. Freiburg in Breisgau. 1974. pp. 169-180.
  8. ^ Roman Catholic Diocese of Münster (ed.): Ecclesiastical gazette for the Diocese of Münster from April 1, 1975 . Münster 1975, p. 68-69 .
  9. ^ Department for Christian Catholic Theology (ed.): International Church Journal No. 74 . Stämpfli, Bern 1984, p. 122-123 .
  10. ↑ a b Church and Church Fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 50-51 .
  11. ↑ a b International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission met in Paderborn ( Memento of July 29, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  12. ↑ Johannes Oeldemann , Friederike Nüssel , Uwe Swarat , Athanasios Vletsis (eds.): Documents growing agreement. All reports and consensus texts of interdenominational discussions at world level. Volume 4 . Bonifatius, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Paderborn, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-89710-492-1 , p. 19-52 .
  13. ^ Church and church fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 45-50 .
  14. ↑ a b Church and Church Fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 13-14 .
  15. ↑ Gottfried W. Locher : To Church and Church Fellowship. Comments from the Protestant-Reformed perspective on the report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . In: Wolfgang H. Müller (Ed.): Church and Church Fellowship. The catholicity of the Old Catholics (Christ Catholics) . Studies Ecumenical Institute Lucerne 10. Theological Publishing House Zurich . Zurich. 2013. ISBN 978-3-290-20089-3 . P. 105.
  16. ↑ a b Church and Church Fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 14-18 .
  17. ↑ Bernd Jochen Hilberath: A model for ecumenism? Ecclesiological remarks on the report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . In: Wolfgang H. Müller (Ed.): Church and Church Fellowship. The catholicity of the Old Catholics (Christ Catholics) . Studies Ecumenical Institute Lucerne 10. Theological Publishing House Zurich. Zurich. 2013. ISBN 978-3-290-20089-3 . P. 135.
  18. ↑ a b On the way. The dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Old Catholics (issue 11/2010). Herder Korrespondenz , November 2, 2010, accessed February 1, 2015 .
  19. ^ Church and church fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 19-21 .
  20. ↑ a b c Church and Church Fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 21-27 .
  21. ↑ a b Church and Church Fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 28-41 .
  22. ^ Heinrich JF Reinhardt: Ecumenical Perspectives of the Catholic Church Constitution . In: Wolfgang Bock (Ed.): Faith and Law and Freedom. Ecumenical Perspectives of Catholic Canon Law . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-525-56807-1 , p. 108.
  23. ↑ a b c d e Church and Church Fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius, Lembeck, Paderborn, Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 40-44 .
  24. ↑ Rolf Weibel : On the way. The dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Old Catholics . In: Volker Resing (Ed.): Herder Korrensponenz. Monthly books for society and religion . 64th year, issue 11, November 2010. Herder publisher. Freiburg in Breisgau. 2010. pp. 583-588.
  25. ↑ Urs von Arx : The report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission "Church and Church Fellowship". Presentation of the text and outlook on the chances of its reception . In: Wolfgang H. Müller (Ed.): Church and Church Fellowship. The catholicity of the Old Catholics (Christ Catholics) . Studies Ecumenical Institute Lucerne 10. Theological Publishing House Zurich. Zurich. 2013. ISBN 978-3-290-20089-3 . Pp. 13-47.
  26. ↑ Leonhard Hell : Considerations on an “intra-Catholic dialogue” from a Roman Catholic perspective . In: Wolfgang H. Müller (Ed.): Church and Church Fellowship. The catholicity of the Old Catholics (Christ Catholics) . Studies Ecumenical Institute Lucerne 10. Theological Publishing House Zurich. Zurich. 2013. ISBN 978-3-290-20089-3 . Pp. 59-72.
  27. ↑ Ernst Christoph Suttner : The Orthodox Churches and the report “Church and Church Fellowship” from the dialogue commission between the Church of Rome and the Old Catholic Churches . In: Wolfgang H. Müller (Ed.): Church and Church Fellowship. The catholicity of the Old Catholics (Christ Catholics) . Studies Ecumenical Institute Lucerne 10. Theological Publishing House Zurich. Zurich. 2013. ISBN 978-3-290-20089-3 . Pp. 73-104.
  28. ^ Msgr. Matthias Türk on the relations between the Pontifical Unity Council and the Lutheran World Federation and the International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Union of Utrecht (German edition 4/2012). L'Osservatore Romano , January 27, 2012, accessed March 9, 2015 .
  29. ↑ Wolfgang H. Müller: Foreword . In: Wolfgang H. Müller (Ed.): Church and Church Fellowship. The catholicity of the Old Catholics (Christ Catholics) . Studies Ecumenical Institute Lucerne 10. Theological Publishing House Zurich . Zurich. 2013. ISBN 978-3-290-20089-3 . P. 8.
  30. ↑ a b c Address by Pope Francis to the delegation of the Old Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Union of Utrecht. Holy See Press Office, October 30, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
  31. ↑ http://www.kath.net/news/48102
  32. ↑ Pope receives Old Catholics. Vatican Radio, October 30, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
  33. ↑ International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference: Working visit and private audience in Rome. International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference, November 16, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .